The student protests of the last year are reminiscent of the 1976 student uprisings. Those protests were the precursor to a political change in South Africa less than a decade later. When young, educated “born free” South Africans express anger and impatience it’s time to pay attention. They have shown they want action. They want […]
General
Posted inEnvironment, General
Celebrating the language of stars in the wake of the supermoon
The earliest hanzi, stars are a language to master before dawn. Quick – before they trickle away, leaving everything hushed and open-mouthed. This is why your fingers come together in a woven calligraphy, to catch and caress prayers like polished stones. Your fingers know the twinkling leaves in the trees around you are synonyms for […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
A promising PhD-student’s take on the so-called ‘Zupta’- phenomenon
What follows here is a piece by one of my and Prof. Pieter Duvenage’s graduate students, Casper Lötter, who is a PhD-candidate in Social Philosophy at the University of the Free State – it first appeared in the Weekend Post on 5 November: ‘In a recent and valuable contribution, Raymond Suttner asks, “What is the […]
Posted inGeneral
Trump’s America: No country for old women
I have managed a monosyllabic email and two cups of tea this morning. Typing this is agony. Now I know that the sun comes up and shines even on the day of the apocalypse. I didn’t know that yesterday. So this is a learning experience. Welcome to America’s 1948, where the sun is shining. With […]
Posted inGeneral
Have we done enough to address apartheid’s structural manifestations?
A UNIQUE characteristic of SA as a society is the racialised structural inequality inherited from the apartheid period. It was an intended and planned outcome of a warped strategy and a set of policy positions designed and rigorously implemented to achieve it. In a very weird way the outcome was hugely successful and achieved the […]
Posted inEnvironment, General, Lifestyle, News/Politics
Let’s remember, some things still work
These are troublesome times, all over the world. Challenges are real and there is no point in pretending it’s all going to be okay. Let’s face it, we can’t recover from the dysfunctions of so-called democracy just like that. There are still deep racial divisions, underfunded education systems, bigoted leaders and unfinished peace processes to […]
Posted inGeneral
Protection Against Financial Impact of Violent Protests and Riots
Sasria cover essential on underlying assets insurance policy As South Africa reels from the financial costs of destruction of property and assets in the wake of #Feesmustfall protests, estimated to be in the region of R1 billion to date, Aon South Africa is advising business owners and individuals to review their assets insurance policies and […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
The assassination of Shaka the unifier is a lesson for the ANC
South Africans celebrate the enigmatic historical figure of Shaka Zulu, the military revolutionary who rose from illegitimacy to be a unifying monarch who used alliances and the occasional judicial assassination to build a Zulu powerhouse on South Africa’s east coast in the 1800s. Ironically, while Shaka’s use of military power, diplomacy and patronage succeeded at […]
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Zuma, ICC and the End of Western Multilateralism
The announcement of the cabinet decision to unsubscribe SA from the ICC (International Criminal Court in The Hague), has been met with the expected reductionism in SA public discourse. This reductionism attributes this ICC withdrawal, solely, to the moral and ethical failings of a single individual – Jacob Zuma – and his motley crew. Much […]
Posted inBusiness, Equality, Gender violence, General, Lifestyle
Sexual orientation discrimination is never just that
In the late nineties, Prof Francisco Valdes from the California Western School of Law, set out to address what he saw as a dangerous loophole in American anti-discrimination law. The loophole existed in the context of sexual discrimination laws. At the time, discrimination on the grounds of sex and gender was outlawed, but, as a […]
Posted inGeneral
State capture: Just a big BEE deal
Thursday was a momentous day in South African democracy. A Chapter 9 institution, empowered by the Constitution, reported on an investigation into the sitting state president and called for the formation of a judicial enquiry into so-called state capture. Notwithstanding the fact that people are innocent until proven guilty, the prima facie evidence is that […]
Posted inEnvironment, General
Why one should NOT vote for Trump in America this Tuesday
There are many reasons why voters in the United States should not vote for the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, on Tuesday, November 8. These include the fact that he has, on several occasions, shown himself to have a questionable attitude towards women, and generally towards a variety of minority groups in America, at a time […]